[SMCARA] Extreme Climate Tower Work

[Clarke, Tom VX-20 OPS]

When I was stationed in Iceland, we used to fly to Jan Mayen for mail
drops.  During the winter it was impossible for the Herks to get in
to support them and the ice kept the supply ships away.

Jan Mayen is a Wx observation station and a Loran station.  They
usually always have a ham or two up there to "winter over".  Whenever
we would fly over and make our drops, they always had a bunch of
folks come out to see the show!  We would drop the "official" mail and
then drop some additional stuff for fun like candy, spare parts, 
playboy mags !  One time we had to drop some spare parts for their
main generator which had failed.  They were anxious to get off
the backup.

We would make a slow speed, low altitude (200-300feet) pass and pitch
the packages out the cabin door onto the runway.  The base is carved 
out of the side of a mountain, so we had to fly towards the mountain and
then turn to parallel the mountain over the runway and then turn again 
away.  Fun flying, but the visibility had to be good enough to do it 
all visually.

73 de Tom/W4OKW

---------------------AJ SEZ------------------------------------------
I don't know Norwegian, but the pictures tell the story. ;-)

http://www.olemartin.no/janmayen/

A.J. Farmer, AJ3U
http://www.aj3u.com